What the Left is doing looks a lot like the Puritan or Prohibitionist mode of behavior transferred to other areas of public policy. We should remember that continued support for Prohibition had seriously hurt the Republicans in the 1932 election. Even Ayn Rand had voted for FDR that year.

The Republicans could really go to town and make significant gains by opposing the Democrat's idiotic technopuritan policies, but that would mean having to give up their own idiotic practice of doing politics as usual.

Seeing the Leftists point their fingers at us and accuse us of being authoritarians is like watching Charlie Manson pointing the fingers of his blood soaked hands at the police and scream "murderers!" _

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The fact of the matter is that Islam denies the validity of our Constitution and Federal and local laws because they are "man made" while demanding that we submit to their code of Sharia because it is divinely ordained. The reality is that Sharia is in fact a code of anti-law created by a rapist, robber, and murderer for the sole purpose of facilitating rape, robbery, and murder.

Thus regimes that practice Sharia are in fact systematically violating the rights of their subjects and may in accordance to the Rand Doctrine be invaded and overthrown by the forces of rationally governed nations.

To be honest I don't see why religions that deny the validity of our Constitution, such as Islam and Scientology, can claim the protection of our First Amendment, which they deny.

This rant is brought to you by The Department of Redundancy Department and the Minbari letter TRI._

Saturday, June 14, 2008

I really don't think that I'm spoiling things by saying that even though you've found Earth it doesn't mean that you can live there.

In the final scene of the mid-season finale we see the main characters, the Humans and their children the Cylons, standing together in the nuked out ruins of a temple. In the far background across a river we see the shattered wreckage of a major city. The Thirteenth Tribe is nowhere in sight. Only the remains of their works which are crumbling into radiologically contaminated dust.

Most of the main characters are stunned into silence by scene of desolation with only the remaining Number Three, the most hardcore of the remaining Cylons, showing an open expression of horror at the apparent fate of the People of Earth.

So they've found Earth, it sucks, now what?

The series isn't over. The questions that remains to be answered are who guided the Humans and their children the Cylons to this world? And why?

My personal theory is that Higher Beings, possibly the remaining Lords of Kobol, have been actively guiding events from the beginning of the series with the ultimate goal of bringing humanity into a higher state of being.

The story of Starbuck, with her apparent death and her miraculous return to the fleet are an obvious clue. At one point I basically suspected that she was an incarnation of one the Lords of Kobol, or perhaps a child of one of the Lords.

Of course an obvious clue in plain sight in the opening credits of every episode is the verse from the Gayatri Mantra: "Om bhūr bhuvah svah tat savitur varēnyam bhargō dēvasya dhīmahi dhiyō yō nah pracōdayāt".

Which translates as: "Oh all-protecting lord, please guide our intellects, so that we may proceed in the right direction towards enlightenment".

Battlestar Galactica is not merely a physical trek with lots of really cool battles with nukes being tossed about like confetti. Battlestar Galactica is a spiritual journey.

The characters in the series, both Human and Cylon, are confronted with a series of moral decisions. And not everyone gets it right. With Brother Cavil and Admiral Cain as obvious examples.

Then there's Gaius Baltar. He appears to be a living, breathing, exemplar of what not to do. His latest folly being the adoption and preaching of a California, which is to say a narcissistic, style of Monotheism.

"It doesn't matter how utterly fouled up I am or will be, I'm perfect and God loves me!" (And I can get you a great deal on the radioactive ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge.)

This doesn't necessarily mean that Colonial Polytheism is the right way either.

In the first part of the initial miniseries William Adama raised the question of whether not Humanity was fit to survive. The real question in my mind is whether or not Humanity is ready to take the next evolutionary step, to an angelic state of being or outright godhood. We should see the answer to that question in the final episode of the series.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Being a know it all means never having to check facts or do a background check on the people who work for you.

To give a historical example of what happens with a know it all attitude we can look to an event prior to the commencement of the Second War War.

The Wehrmacht had printed a French edition of it's primary work on the theory of armored warfare and gave copies of them to the French Army for distribution to their garrison libraries. A year later the German military attache went through the libraries to see who checked out the book. Most copies had never been touched. The few that were checked out had been read by lowly lieutenants.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Those of us who end up in the conservative camp, by conviction or by default, know damned well that he or she is fallible, that is capable of making a mistake. As a result each of us makes the effort to obtain all the valid information possible and to separate truth from falsehood.

But the folks on the other side see themselves as perfect, superior, or infallible. They don't bother to make the effort to see the truth because they feel that they already know the truth. Thus they stumble about from screw-up to screw-up. And they are utterly mystified as to why we won't willingly follow them into the hole.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

One is for Liberty and the Society of Consent or one is not. If one is not then it doesn't matter what "wing" or ideology that person claims to adhere to, that individual is an Enemy of Human Kind and should be dealt with as wolves are.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Breaking News: MN-DOT suddenly closed the Winona Main Channel Bridge on June 3, 2008, after it was discovered that the bridge had similar gusset plate problems as the I-35W and DeSoto Bridges. The gusset plates were only marginal to begin with, and showed extensive damage due to rust. It is not known how long the bridge will be closed, or if it can be repaired. The nearest river crossings are La Crosse and Wabasha.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

On the way to a temp work assignment which was canceled due to the weather I was doing 65 in a 55 zone in the left lane when I was passed on the right side by an African-American woman who flipped the bird at me. Some people have to be assholes.

Perhaps the fact that I was neatly groomed and driving with the seat set straight up gave off a Republican vive.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Cyclopedia of gods and heroes from myth and legend for Advanced D & D. Published by TSR in 1980.

NYARLATHOTEP (the crawling chaos, the messenger of the gods)

[Also known as Nyarly in The Unspeakable Vault (of Doom)]

Lesser god

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Nyarlathoptep appears as a tall dark man. His appearance in the world is said to foretell the the return of the Old Ones from their imprisonment. He charms humans, humanoids, and non-magical animals by his mere presence (good alignment, save at +4; evil alignment, save at -4). Those falling under his spell either obey him or behave in a purely chaotic manner. Thus his progress across the face of the land is followed by riot, war, mass murder, suicide, and insanity. No non-sentient creature can harm him, even if controlled.

The god is believed by some students of the occult to have various guises, including a red bat-like form with three evil eyes. He can call up an army of wild beasts or mindless humans within an hour's notice (1-100 of them). Each time Nyarlathotep hits an enemy, he drains 3-30 hit points from them, which temporarily add to his hit point total for one full turn. There is a 5% chance that a continual light spell will drive this being off into the Astral Plane._